Chinese TV animation reveals the DNA of documentaries

This fully CG promo spot uses DNA as an abstract representation of content on China’s documentary TV channel CCTV9, brought to life with intricate effects by London-based design studio Double G.

Double G motion designer Rita Louro explains: "CCTV9 asked us to create a channel promo that brought the cube from the CCTV9 logo into the heart of the visual creative. The DNA journey is made up of a series of elements, and each element is made up of a chain of cubes. In an abstract way, the cube has become a DNA molecule and the DNA strands combined form a wonderful and magical world."

Double G took charge of the entire project, from storyboarding to delivery of the final spot. "Everything was created with Cinema 4D, V-Ray and After Effects," says Louro. "Most of the 3D work was done using Cinema 4D’s MoGraph module and its effectors. All the objects and environments were created with the MoGraph Cloner object.

"We had to work with low-poly proxies. With this kind of workflow, we animated the hidden low-poly model and only that. We used cloners to make it out of cubes. Once all the cubes had been created, we used a few effectors to make the whole piece a bit more dynamic. MoGraph was an absolute life-saver for us in this project."

Words: Kerrie Hughes

This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 172.

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